Andy Gapin

I trekked out to the movie theater this past weekend to catch Avatar in IMAX 3D. I had every plan of executing my normal pre-noon movie viewing experience only to find that in the post-Christmas frenzy of gift card spending and people having time off from work, they were at the movie theater too. What is normally a beacon of perfect cinematic consumption was instead a jam-packed hell-hole. Avatar was sold out. Until late that night. But since I was already there, I got a ticket for Sherlock Holmes instead. It was a movie I wanted to see, but wasn’t going to stress over finding a chance to make it out to the theater for. Well, I’m glad I did see it!

I never read much (read: any) Sherlock Holmes, but this movie felt pretty on. The story was engaging and the pace of the movie left not a single dull moment. There was no point in which I was wishing they would just move it along already. I really had a good time from beginning to end. There was a lot of great action that made sure to never go on for too long and the humor and funny little quips were thrown in in the exact perfect amount so as to never get too campy.

I must say, though, the best part of this flick was Robert Downey Jr. I mean seriously, talk about come backs! Since Iron Man, he’s been on fire and Sherlock Holmes is no different. Great selection for the role. Really, the whole cast did a great job…except for maybe Rachel McAdams, but I’m probably just being biased since I’m not a big fan.

Check this one out!

Rating: A

I got a couple of new shirts for Christmas this year. The first is a neat little take on the Simpsons that my girlfriend got me from Threadless and the second, a gift from my girlfriend’s parents, is a flashback to one of my favorite shows of my childhood, Salute Your Shorts, featuring Blake Sennett of Rilo Kiley.

This week’s show was my countdown of my top 10 albums of 2009. It was an easy show to do since I picked out everything beforehand. I opened up with a few honorable mentions and then went right into the top 10. I ended with a Thorns Of Life track. I figured that bootleg from 924 Gilman St. was one of my most listened to records in the early part of the year so I should play something from it. The only real difficult part of this year’s countdown was trying to find a clean track from the Dear Landlord album. Everything I wanted to play had profanity in it and I didn’t have time to edit something out. I could have done it on the fly, but I never like leaving it to that. Don’t want to risk getting distracted and missing it.

So here’s the playlist (if you’re reading via Facebook, it’s going to be a jumbled mess since their import sucks. Click to read the original instead.)…

Source: 90.3 The Core

2009 was a pretty fucking awesome year! Seriously. I’ll probably make another post about the rest, but there were some amazing movies and some great records that came out.

Top 10 Albums

A lot of people are making lists for the decade, but I decided that I just couldn’t do that. It was too difficult of a task. So I stuck with just doing a top 10 favorite records for the year. In previous years, I’ve done bigger lists, but I’m keeping it small this year. And, as usual, this is a list of my favorite records, kind of like a personal playlist, rather than ones that I would say are the best.

Anyway, the list is below and I’ll also be counting this list  on The Playlist with The Reverend on 90.3 The Core tonight at 9pm! Make sure to tune in. I’ll be playing one song from each album.

1. Neko Case – Middle Cyclone – Anti
2. Frank Turner – Poetry Of The Deed – Epitaph
3. The Lawrence Arms – Buttsweat And Tears – Fat Wreck Chords
4. M. Ward – Hold Time – Merge
5. Coconut Records – Davy – Young Baby Records
6. Monsters of Folk – Monsters Of Folk – Shangri-La
7. Dear Landlord – Dream Homes – No Idea
8. Conor Oberst And the Mystic Valley Band – Outer South – Merge
9. NOFX – Frisbee/Coaster – Fat Wreck Chords
10. Future Of The Left – Travels with Myself and Another – 4AD

And besides those, there are a few honorable mentions:

• Cheap Girls – My Roaring 20s
• Sonic Youth – The Eternal
• The Decemberists – The Hazards Of Love
• Mason Jennings – Blood Of Man
• Wilco – Wilco (The Album)
• Andrew Bird – Noble Beast
• Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest
• Camera Obscura – My Maudlin Career

You know, I almost wanted to put Lady GaGa on that list somewhere. I think I’ve spent some serious time in the second half of this year discovering a love for her. I never would have thought that I’d think so highly of her, but she’s pretty friggin’ awesome. However, I just can’t say that The Fame Monster was that great overall. It’s good for a few really great songs, but there’s also a lot of filler. Oh well.

And 2010 is already looking like it’s going to be a great year with new records by Murder By Death, Minus The Bear, Against Me!, Spoon, She And Him, and more already announced. I can’t wait!

Top 10 Movies

I actually had a much harder time making my list of top 10 movies for the year. There were a TON of good flicks this year and there were so many that I just didn’t have time to see either! Ultimately, these were my favorites:

1. Inglourious Basterds
2. Star Trek
3. Up
4. The Hangover
5. Dead Snow
6. Zombieland
7. District 9
8. Paranormal Activity
9. Fantastic Mr. Fox
10. Coraline

And of course, some honorable mentions:

• Whip It
• (500) Days Of Summer
• Watchmen
• Last House On The Left
• Whatever Works
• The Wrestler

So there you have it, my favorite albums and movies of the year. I’m hoping to post another entry about other things from 2009 if I get a chance over the next week. But until then, don’t forget that I’ll be counting down that top 10 albums list tonight on The Playlist with The Reverend on 90.3 The Core!

As we get into the slow time of year for new records, it gets harder to do a show of all new music. Last night will probably be the last show for a few weeks that doesn’t feel aged…at least relative to what I try to put together. Last night was great though, definitely a good feel to the show. I felt completely on with my mic breaks and the music I was playing. There were also a few callers and requests (that I couldn’t honor).

I’m always conflicted about playing reissues on the show. It’s not technically new music, but it is kind of a new release in a way. When it’s a band that I really like or that was really important to the music scene, I tend to side with playing it. So being able to throw some Sunny Day Real Estate on was nice…even though the reissue came out about three months ago, it just finally made it into rotation at the station. That’s old for The Playlist, but I couldn’t resist playing something from it.

The new Spoon single is great! I’m seriously looking forward to the new album next year. For a while before Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, it felt like they had dropped off, but that album brought them back in a big way for me. It was one of my top albums of 2007 so I’m interested to see what they do now.

Next week will by my Top 10 of 2009 countdown show. I’ve got my list all decided and ready to go. I just need to pick out the songs that I want to play from each one.

Source: 90.3 The Core

Last night’s edition of the Playlist turned out really well. It was my first show back in our normal studio in the Livingston Student Center after six months in a temporary studio at Yorba Lounge. It felt nice to be back in there. There was definitely a lot more energy to last night’s show because of it. Maybe it was just excitement to be back or maybe it was something else. I don’t know.

I got a ton of calls, IMs, and requests last night which was awesome–maybe the source of all that energy? That’s where The Shins and the two Coconut Records tracks (though, I’d play two Coconut Records songs any day and be happy about it) came from. And it was awesome to finally have the new Cloak/Dagger album in the studio so I could play it, but I still haven’t gotten to listen to the whole thing yet. Besides that, I was also excited to play Hell by Tegan And Sara again. I like that song a lot! The rest of the album is hit or miss, there are a couple good songs, but Hell is awesome.

Source: 90.3 The Core

I saw this on the way to work today. Not only does the company name, Peeping Tom’s Window Cleaning, make me feel a little bit like they might not be professionals, but they slap it on that old ass minivan to really hammer home the perv-on-wheels vibe. There is absolutely no way that Tom is going to be cleaning your windows with his pants on. Good luck with that.

I couldn’t resist posting it to failblog.org. Please vote for it!

I wasn’t expecting too much from last night’s show, I missed last week and didn’t really feel like being there. When I started picking out my music, I felt like I was struggling to find enough to put a show together with. I pulled out barely enough albums to fill an hour and figured I was screwed. But somehow, everything really came together nicely. I’m not sure how it happened, but the music flowed amazingly from one song into the other and my mic breaks were right on target. It was a nice little surprise.

Source: 90.3 The Core

Look at this shirt from woot. It’s got everything! There’s really nothing left to ask for. I think it may slightly edge out Threadless’s This Is How The World Will End shirt. Maybe.